Modern Britain

Gallery: Churches of the City of York

by Peter Kessler, 6 March 2011

St Paul's Church, Kexby, is along a small
drive on the northern side of the A1079, about eighty metres (yards)
west of the Old Hall Lane junction. The small village seems to have
been hit hard by the Black Death as it was excused from paying over
half its tax quota in 1354. A chantry chapel at Kexby was mentioned
in 1398. Dedicated as St Mary's Chapel, it may have been suppressed
in the sixteenth century and might have stood in Chapel Close,
mentioned in 1604.

The early Gothic style church of St Paul was
designed by F C Penrose and consecrated in 1852. It consists of
chancel, nave, north-west bell turret with spire, and west door
with canopy. There is one bell. A district chapelry was formed
out of Catton parish in 1853. The church is now closed and going
through the process of redundancy. Kexby Primitive Methodist
Chapel was mentioned in the village in 1840 and 1851, but a
cottage was used in 1865 and 1877.

Holy Trinity Church, Elvington, stands at
the southern end of Church Lane, and the village, before the lane
turns westwards. There was a church at Elvington in 1086, although
little is known of it in the medieval period. It was out of repair
in 1663 and again in 1744. Possibly by 1801 its condition was
unrecoverable because the Reverend A Cheap decided to fund much of
the work to build a new church rather than repair the old one. The
new church opened in 1803.

The new church was of brick with stone dressings,
with an embattled west tower, apse, and west gallery. The windows were
in 'semigothic' style. It was repaired in 1849 and 1868 and then
rebuilt on a site a little to the south in 1876-1877. The new building,
in stone, was designed by William White. Elvington Wesleyan Methodist
Chapel was built in the village in 1810. It was rebuilt or extensively
repaired in 1833 and restored in 1899. It was still used in 1972.

St Helen's Church, Wheldrake, is on the
northern side of Main Street, sixty metres (yards) east of the Church
Close junction. It consists of sanctuary, nave, west tower, and vestry,
and existed by 1086. Only the ashlar tower survives from the medieval
building. Its lower stage is of the early fourteenth century, but
the upper stage is a century or more later, and at about the same
time a west doorway was inserted. In 1580 many parishioners were
cited for not attending.

The big rectangular nave and the five-sided sanctuary
are built of pale red brick with darker brick and stone dressings.
Dilapidations were reported in 1578, 1628-1630, and 1745, and repair work
was carried out in 1741-1742. Apart from the tower the building dates from
a rebuild of 1778-1779. The church was extended in 1824 and restored in 1873.
Wheldrake Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1816, and rebuilt in 1863. It
was in use until 1970, and is now a private residence.